A Few Seconds Too Late
by MindsandMirrors
Summary: A few seconds is all it takes to change a life. When someone misses those seconds, then it is never good. For one little girl, a Beowolf stole her eye, her innocence, and her trust. For a little boy, a fire took his arm, and his eye. Neither are whole, and both lost someone they considered family in one way or another.
1. Chapter 1

_So, I'm writing this with Coeur's permission. The idea is all him, while the story itself is all mine. Got it? Good. Everything else of importance has been explained in the description._

She had her red cloak pulled up and headphones on, playing Red Like Roses Part Two far too loudly and trying to drown the loud talking of everyone else. And failing. She sighed and looked around the crowd, seeing if there was a spot to sit that wasn't filled to the brim with loud people, and only finding one. A corner that some lanky looking blonde was sitting in, looking slightly green, and pressing a fist to his mouth. She decided that she would rather not and turned up the volume of her music, still trying to drown the rest of the people out.

She sighed and pulled her cloak around herself tighter and closed her bright silver eye, hoping to get some sleep.

"Is that my baby sister trying to hide in her cloak?" Called a cheery voice that slowly peeled her headphones away. She gave a small smile and chuckled, opening her eye.  
"And how're you, Yang?" She said, looking up at her sister who tapped her chin with her left prosthetic.  
"Hmm... I was doing pretty good, but when I heard that my baby sis is going to Beacon with me, I was even better!" She said with a giant smile, picking the small girl up with ease while she frowned and kicked lightly against her sister.  
"Yang!" She yelled out, not liking being held up in the air.  
"Aww, fine. I just love you so much!" The older blonde said as she put the surprisingly small girl down with. She huffed and blew a lock of her black and red hair from her face. "Aw, what's wrong sis? Someone give you crap about being so young? Say the word and I'll kick their ass!" She slammed her two prosthetics together with a loud clank. The smaller girl chuckled and fist-bumped the taller girl as a hologram of Glynda Goodwitch appeared around the ship, spouting a few random facts that no one listened to other than the fact that they were approaching Beacon and would be there soon.  
"'Scuse me, coming through!" Someone shouted before dashing past them to the trashcan and hunching over it, heaving his breakfast into the container.  
"Nasty,"said Yang, looking at the guy who was vomiting with a wrinkled nose while Ruby shrugged.

A few minutes before landing they all heard a retching noise behind them and turned to see that the blonde who had been huddled in the corner was now puking his guts out into a trashcan. Several people stepped away and wrinkled their noses while the rest tried their best to ignore him. Once they landed he stumbled past everyone and leaned against the wall but Ruby was too distracted by everyone's weapons.

"So... many..." She said, surprised at the varieties of unique weapon. From collapsible staves to flaming swords, it was there. And she wanted to look at them all, but a few more than others.

She moved to follow someone with an especially interesting weapon- what looked to be a multi-function sword, spear, and lever action rifle combo- when she heard her sister speak.

"So Rubes, my friends are here and I gotta go love you bye!" She shouted, moving off with a large group. The small girl scoffed and uttered something about how you should show your younger sister around campus before suddenly becoming enveloped in a group of taller people, not that that's saying much. When they had moved past her she was spinning around and stumbling before falling onto her back, colliding with a stack of white cases.

"You idiot! Don't you know what you could've done!?" Yelled a white haired girl with a small scar running down her face. "You could've blown us off the cliff!"  
"Sorry 'bout that. Don't exactly have the best balance when I'm spun around due to the missing eye." The one-eyed girl growled, trying to keep her temper in check as the girl in white bent over and picked up a bottle of red Dust.  
"Do you know what this is? It's Dust! Fire, water, energy!" She spouted off several other types while shaking the vial in the shorter girl's face. It aggravated her nose and she began to sneeze, when a hand clamped itself over her face. She stiffened and reached for Crimson Rose when she realized that it was a familiar feeling prosthetic. But an unfamiliar left-hand reached up and stopped the girl from shaking the crystal vial.  
"I do believe that you're going to blow the three of us off of this cliff if you continue to do that." Said a masculine voice. She moved to knock the man off of his feet but he stepped back and removed the hand from her mouth. "I would kindly ask you to stop waving an obviously damaged Dust container around, Ms. Schnee."  
"Finally. Some recognition." The girl blew a lock of hair from her face and began to pack up her luggage and Ruby looked to the man with a prosthetic hand. He had ashen gray hair with tufts of bright blonde peeking out that was similar in color to her sister's and sapphire eyes, but one looked a little different than the other, more mechanical, and his face was smeared with black ash.  
"Sorry about that," he said as the Schnee moved away. "I'd just rather not get blown off Beacon the moment I step foot. I'm Jaune Arc, what's your name?" He held out his natural left hand. She grasped it and shook, nodding slightly.  
"Ruby Rose. Nice to meet you." He nodded back and began walking slowly to the main hall. She followed him.

"So, what weapon do you use?" He asked after a moment of tense silence. She looked at him for a moment and brought out her sniper rifle, Crimson Rose and extending the barrel to its full thirty-two inches.  
"I call her Crimson Rose. She's an assault sniper rifle with the ability to fire multiple calibers and Dust types and an adjustable barrel length for extended shots." She said simply.  
"Hmm, cool. Got another transformation to it?" He asked, looking the long weapon over. This seemed to anger her as she growled and put it away, slinging it over her shoulder.  
"No. Qrow, one of the teachers at Signal, suggested I added a scythe mode to it but no. I'd rather not." She looked away as she spoke. Noticing her anger he quickly took over the conversation.  
"I've got Crocea Mors. It's an... old family heirloom that was passed down to me." He drew the blade and looked at it fondly, she inspected it and saw that the edges and bits of the center was burnt purple. He pulled up the sheath and it expanded into a shield that was cracked and lightly dented with some more scorching here and there. "My great-great-grandfather used it in the Great War and it has served the Arc family quite well since." He replaced the sword and collapsed the sheath and she noted the barely audible _click_ his sword made as it was sheathed.

They walked in silence for the rest of the way, discreetly observing the other's appearance.

He wore a silver and gold breast plate that ended at his midriff, a slightly scorched pauldron on his left shoulder of the same silver and gold metal and two bracers on each arm, the left also slightly scorched, and each one having accents of variously colored Dust along the inside, barely visible as he walked. Under that he wore a tight, faded navy blue hoodie that was frayed and burnt at the edges with finger sized scorch holes in it, revealing glimpses of a dirty white under-shirt. His heavily worn, but well cared for, pants that were tucked into worn brown combat boots were a shade of light blue. All of it covered or smeared in some amount of ash. To top it all off at first glance his hair was an ashen gray that fell down to his shoulders and his eyes were an extremely bright blue, although one seemed different. She then noticed a thin line of contracted scar-tissue leading from just below his jaw down into his hoodie mostly obscured by the ashen grey and black scruff growing on his face.

"What's with the ash? Fashion statement?" She asked, raising an eyebrow at his choice of 'war-paint', as some of the students called it.  
"Training. Lost track of time and didn't have time for a shower." He said, motioning to the ash covering him. She nodded in realization.

She wore a bright red hood fastened around her neck with a metal pin of a rose that ended in tatters at her ankles. Pounding on the cement was a set of black combat boots that reached up to just below her knees with far too many belts to be practical, and leading out of those was a pair of black jeans that had several holes near the knees. Her left leg had a rose stem wrapped several times around her, the blossom blooming on the top of her thigh. Over what appeared to be a cream colored tunic that opened to reveal a small amount of cleavage and fell to mid-thigh was a black trimmed with red corset bound with several buckles. Her hair was a deep black that faded to red and came over a black eye-patch encompassing most of the right side of her face that had a blood-red, thorny rose over the obviously empty socket. Her bangs fell down to just below her forehead and the rest of her hair was shoulder length and pulled back into a short pony-tail.

At last they reached the large double wooden doors to the main hall.

 _Damn, eighteen minutes behind schedule. I meant to post this at exactly midnight and I was just sooooo close. Last minutes revisions and all that. Hope you guy's enjoyed!_


	2. Chapter 2

_Couple things, first, thank you guys for the reviews. It means a lot to me to know that people are enjoying this, even if this thing only has two chapters. So far, at least. Next, I had a question on the romantic content, specifically smut/lemon and while not part of the plan, I will happily write out a smut scene if that's what you guys want. Originally I rated it M due to the general idea of this story but, like I said, it really depends on what people want if there will be smut. If I get enough people asking for it, I'll see if I can fit it in. I did not realize how sexual that sounded until I wrote it. Hope you guy's enjoy this!_

 _~MindsandMirrors_

They walked through the large wooden double doors and saw the very, very large open room that was the main hall. It was crowded with a large number of students, although one stood out, a bright blonde woman who was looking around and, once she had spotted the pair, began jumping up and down and waving her arms.

"Hey Ruby! I saved you a spot!" She shouted out, catching the attention of several other students.  
"Ugh, that's my sister. Hey, see you later, alright?" She turned to Jaune, who had a small smile on his face. At first, she thought it had something to do with her sister's breast size and grew a small frown, but she noticed the lack of any perverted expression on his face.  
"Hmm? Sorry, your sister... reminds me of someone I know." He looked back at her as he said this, and moved his artificial hand in a small wave. "See you." He walked off into the crowd of people to find a good spot and she moved off towards her sister.

"Heya little sis. So, how was it?" The blonde girl asked with a giant smile on her lips. And while the shorter girl noticed the implications in the sentence she decided to go with the literal question.  
"You mean before, or after I fell onto some snob's over-sized luggage and was almost blown up 'cause she didn't notice a crack in the container?" Yang's smile widened to epic proportions and Ruby groaned.  
"Oh god, she's right behind me, isn't she?" She asked, face palming.  
"You!" The short, white-haired girl shouted at the shorter girl, to which she got a growled response absolutely _dripping_ with sarcasm so thick you could cut it with a sword/spear/rifle combo.  
"What do you want now, 'miss' Schnee? Perhaps a fifty seven and a-half page essay on how sorry I am that I tripped onto your luggage? Or could I perhaps grovel at your feet and proclaim my undying love for your inhumane company?" The heiress twitched at that last one and held out a pamphlet.  
"Read this and don't talk to me ever again." Ruby grabbed the pamphlet and looked at it to see that it said 'Dust for Dummies, Sponsored by the SDC' and called out to the girl's retreating form.  
"Hey, Ice-Queen! This is what I think of your pamphlet!" Weiss Schnee heard a ripping sound from behind her to see that the slightly shorter girl had torn it up and thrown the pieces in the air. "Look! It's snowing! Does this make you a little home sick, Ice-Queen?" She laughed as her complexion turned from pale white to flaming red and, just as Mt. Schnee was about to erupt, Ozpin began his speech, cutting off any retort before it began.

"I'll... keep this brief." He began, "Some of you have traveled here in search of knowledge. And others, have come here to escape a past they are less than fond of. Here, you will not find the ability to escape your past, but hone and acquire new skills. Once you leave this institution, you plan to dedicate your life to something, although not all of you have the same plans. Do you know what I see when I look at the crowd in front of me? Wasted energy. Bitterness. Wishes to escape something. But also potential. Amazing, unbelievably untapped potential. What this potential becomes is up to you. Many of you assume that knowledge will free you, but, as you will very soon learn... knowledge can only take you so far before you must walk alone." He spoke with a neutral tone, the words lifeless.

He turned on his heel and began to walk off stage, taking a small sip from his mug.

"You will gather in the ballroom tonight; tomorrow, Initiation begins. Be ready. Dismissed." She said quickly before following the Headmaster off stage and everyone followed suit, walking out of the main hall and to the Ballroom on some kind of horde instinct.

* * *

 _/-/-/_

* * *

Ruby lay on her stomach, writing a letter out in neat, elegant script.

"What'cha writing Rubes?" Asked Yang.  
"A letter back to Dad. Told him I'd write back and tell him about Beacon, guess he wants to know how its changed."  
"Ah, dad. He never ceases to amaze me on how prying he can be into our lives."  
"What the hell does that mean?" Asked her younger sister, looking at the blonde strangely and wondering what they had slipped into her sister's water.  
"I do believe he asked me something similar, but more along the lines of, 'tell me how Ruby's doing and castrate any male that comes within twenty feet of my little rose'." She said with a smirk as her gaze flicked over to two shirtless boys homo-erotically wrestling with each other, both obviously trying to get her attention.  
"I don't think he'd approve of all of the boys though." Added the shorter girl with a small smirk as she imagined the slightly perverted expression that she was sure was on her sister's face and the furious expression on their father's if he knew that the two men had done so much as shown their feet in her line of sight.  
"Well, I know I do." She said with a purr. "And hey, what happened to your other pajamas? The cute ones with the hearts and beowolves?" She asked, looking at her younger sister's pajamas that were rather similar to her own with tight pants ending at mid-calf and a tight black crop top with her hair out of its usual ponytail and falling down to her shoulder, shrouding most of her face.

"Yang, I stopped wearing those months ago. When was the last time I hung out in my pajamas anyways?" She asked rhetorically, looking up at her older sister for the first time since they began the conversation.  
"Hmm." She hummed, looking at the smaller girl in suspicion.  
"Well, I'd ask you how you're doing but I think that conversation sums it up pretty nicely." Said a new voice with a fair bit of sarcasm in his voice.  
"And who would this be?" Asked Yang, looking over the newcomer's blue fleece pants and white t-shirt, revealing the bandages that covered his right arm up to and past the shoulder and the connection port that led down into the metal prosthetic. He had apparently taken a shower as his hair was now a bright blonde and damp, as was his beard, and his face was no longer smeared with ash.

"Oh, hey Jaune. How're you doing?" Asked her younger sister without looking up, to her complete and utter surprise.  
"Wait wait waitwaitwaitwait WAIT! My baby sister made a friend? All on her own?!" She asked in complete and total mock amazement as she put two and two together, and promptly got seventy-three and a half. "Oh my god, you are so crushing on him!" She squealed and enveloped the smaller girl in a bear hug, spinning, who promptly began growling and trying to escape her sister's embrace while Jaune Arc laughed hysterically at their 'fight'.

Suddenly Yang dropped her sister to the floor in a disoriented heap and took a step into his personal space only for him to raise an eyebrow, both changing emotions as suddenly as an explosion.  
"Hmm... I suppose he's good looking enough." She said while rubbing her chin before moving behind him in the blink of an eye. "And quite a well toned body." He sensed the motion coming thanks to his Lotus-Trained-Reflexes(TM) and managed to grab her wrist before she smacked him.  
"Please. I get enough of that from my sister." He said dead-pan before releasing her.  
"Ooh, kinky." She said with a smirk, much to the displeasure of her younger sister.  
"Oh god Yang, why?" Was the question groaned out of the still slightly unsteady girl's mouth.

"YOU!" Yelled out a high pitched voice behind them and, with a muttered curse, Ruby looked at the pale skinned and haired girl.

 _Damn, a full thirty minutes late. Sorry about the delay, I'll try harder next time. Hope you enjoyed this ever so slight rush-job (cough, I wrote most of this today, cough) and don't forget to read and review!  
~MindsandMirrors_


	3. Chapter 3

_First off I'd like to give a shout out to my beta, Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh, who despite being far more popular than me, offered to be my beta and without him, this chapter would be exactly five-hundred and twenty-six words long._

 _I am... honestly surprised that a novice writer like me has gotten so many people (close to two-thousand!) reading my story and giving positive reviews, even if the_ _idea isn't mine. I've got nothing to say other than thank you guys for the support. Enjoy and don't forget to read and review!_

 _~MindsandMirrors_

"You!" Shouted the pale skinned girl behind them, and with a muttered curse that had Yang glaring at her with a disapproving look in her eyes, Ruby turned to look at her.  
"What is it now?" She groaned, looking up at the ceiling, thinking why me.  
"People are trying to sleep and so should you! And failing that could you quiet down as initiation is early tomorrow!"  
"If people are still up it's not because of us, Ice-Queen." Ruby muttered under her breath and caused Jaune to begin chuckling lightly.  
"Hey, if people are trying to sleep, why are there still lights on?" Asked Yang, looking around the room to find the source of the dim light to see that it was a black-haired girl wearing a bow in her pajamas, reading a book with a three pronged candle holder next to her.

Yang pulled herself away from the admittedly entertaining conflict to walk over to the girl with the black bow, picking her way over the mostly sleeping forms of students

"Hey, could you blow those out?" Asked Yang politely, gesturing to the candles. "I think that if the light goes out, everyone will head to bed, and I really don't want to be a zombie tomorrow morning." The girl didn't acknowledge that she even existed and merely reached over to her candle holder, eyes never taken off of her book, and blew them out. "Thanks." Said Yang to the darkness before walking back to where she assumed her sleeping bag was.

After stumbling over several people and many more muttered apologies she decided to just give up and activate the flashlight function on her left arm. It was more of an ambient glow that had a couple people muttering curses at her and rolling over in the sleeping bags but she just ignored them.

Eventually, she made it back to where Ruby was lying down and chuckling quietly to herself, the stiff, black eye-patch was lying on the ground next to her with her hair covering the afflicted area. She was sleeping peacefully and had a look of contentment on her face, one that made her look like the child she was outside, and not the overly-mature and scarred woman she was on the inside.

Yang sighed and climbed into her sleeping bag, turning the light out as she did so. She hoped for the nightmares that had plagued her for over a decade now to not show up this time. She couldn't afford to be tired. Not again.

* * *

As Yang lied down on the ground, wrapped in her sleeping-bag, a different blonde sat up against a wall, legs crossed and eyes wide open and alert. The sapphire orbs scanned the sleeping mass of people slowly, taking each of their breathing patterns for an hour until he was certain they were all deep in sleep before standing up and carefully moving out of the ballroom in the pitch black, next to invisible to the teachers who were watching over him, their eyes already drooping.

He eventually made his way to the door and slowly exited it, careful to not make any noise as he did so. Once the door was closed, he began walking to the locker rooms and moved to locker 616, pulling out his scroll and unlocking it, he pulled Crocea Mors and his belt out, attached the weapon to his hip as well as his gold and white bracers.

He then made his way outside, not caring about the midnight cold of the ground seeping into his feet, and into the the edge of the forest. He found a sturdy tree and drew his sword, preparing to swing.

* * *

Ruby and Yang woke up slowly, their internal alarm clocks blaring at them. Ruby yawned, sat up, quickly stretched, placed her eye-patch on, and started walking towards the breakfast carts that the Beacon staff had set up, filling up two plates with eggs, toast, pancakes, and two mugs of coffee. She then walked over to her sister, who just lay there like a corpse, while using the balance she picked up during her part-time job as a waitress to carry both mugs and plates over to her lifeless sister was laid and placed the food next to her head, the enticing smell making her roll over and begin slowly eating, gaining alertness with every bite until she was quickly devouring her food, while Ruby sat nearby slowly munching on a slice of toast and sipping coffee.

Once Ruby was finished with her food and drink, she stood up and moved over to the locker room, pulling her combat outfit out of the pristine white thing and moving towards the shower stalls. After five minutes she toweled herself off and pulled her combat outfit on, walking out of the stall while finishing toweling her hair off, reaching for the tie to keep it out of her face.

"Goddammit!" She heard from the stall next to her. She turned with a curious look on her face to see a dripping Jaune Arc walk out of the stall in nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist, a plastic bag still still around the connector port to his prosthetic and the bandages covering his arm, which she now saw also wrapped around the shoulder and his upper body, terminating just under the left shoulder. She blinked and blushed ever so slightly before shaking it off and raising an eyebrow.

"Forget something, vomit-boy?" She asked, referring to when he threw up on the airship, but he was on the warpath. He looked over at a group of boys who were snickering and and, with eyes blazing, tore off the plastic bag and moved over to his locker, throwing it open and pulling his metal arm out. He swiftly shoved the thing onto his arm, barely wincing as he did so, and stomped over to the small group, making sure his towel was in a secure military knot.  
"Hand them over." He said, gaze even and cold.  
"Hand what over?" Asked the biggest, a ginger he really didn't have time for so instead, he just cocked back with his prosthetic and slammed it into the side of his face, the guy flaring his aura just in time to prevent any damage other than a nasty bruise that was already fading.

"Ow! What the hell man?!" Shouted the ginger, but Jaune didn't care, he just repeated what he said with even more ice. "Fuck, fine. Asshole." Glowered the big man, pulling a stack of clothing out from where it was wedged between a pair of lockers. Jaune shoved his hands in the pockets of his jeans, sighing in relief when he felt the familiar piece of paper in its spot. He turned on his heel, walked into the shower stall, and came out within thirty seconds fully geared in his combat outfit.

"What was that about?" Ruby asked him once they were walking out of the locker room. His response was a shrug. She just shook her head and started to move towards Yang. "Hey, I'll see you later, Jaune. Let's hope for a team together."  
"Alright." Was his response before he began walking towards the now mostly empty breakfast cart, only grabbing a cup of black coffee and moving off to wander the halls of Beacon. She just shook her head again and began to move towards her sister, who was now clothed in her usual gear and chatting with a few friends from Signal.

 _I know that this story has been pretty slow so far, but Initiation is next chapter, and this story will pick up from there. Only one way for this story to at this point, and that's up._


	4. Chapter 4

_So, first, an apology. I took absolutely too long in writing this chapter. As I did with the rest of my stories. But, it's out now, and as you can see this story now has a bit of cover art drawn by my good friend Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh. (Check out his profile, it's great! Way better than mine, I can assure you.)_

 _Enjoy!_

 _~MindsandMirrors_

Jaune had finished his coffee three minutes ago. That was too soon for him, as he had to keep up with the energetic, bubbly girl who had ran into him two minutes ago, quite literally, and promptly introduced herself as Nora Valkyrie.

He was debating faking a malfunction in his eye just to give his ears a break.

That wasn't to say that he didn't like her, or the quiet companion she walked with, who stepped in to translate a few statements that didn't make much sense to the blonde. It's just that she was so...

"Hey, do you cook? You look like you cook. Can you cook pancakes? Renny can cook the best pancakes ever. Oh! You two should definitely work together to make pancakes! You'd make the best ultra-super-mega-pancakes ever! With extra syrup 'cause I'm Queen of the Castle~!"

Nora.

The blonde sighed, shot a look at the dark haired boy as if to say, ' _You've lived with this for how long?_ ', remembering that they had said something about traveling together for some time, and turned to face the bubbly girl, extra emphasis on the _bubbly_ part of that sentence.  
"I do cook, although I haven't made pancakes for a while. My sisters generally want something fancy or original and pancakes aren't very high on that list." He chuckled, rubbing the back of his head.

The girl looked heartbroken, almost close to tears, at hearing that his sisters didn't want pancakes all day every day.  
"But... but pancakes are the best! How could they not like them!" She shouted, violently shaking the teen.  
"No-ra pl-ea-se st-op sh-ak-ing me!" He stuttered out, not even his own strength enough to stop the crazed girl. Despite the fact that he obviously weighed far more than her and had much more muscle mass, she could throw him around like a rag doll.

He shook his head before looking the girl in the eyes. "I'm not saying that we _didn't_ eat pancakes, just that we didn't eat pancakes _all_ the time," he explained, "and if it'll keep you from shaking me like that I'll make you some pancakes after initiation?"  
"Hmm... I don't know. You're pretty fun to shake, Jauney..." Despite not telling her his name she knew it, and that sent alarm bells blaring inside of his head. He tensed up and decided to keep a closer eye on her.

"If you refrain from shaking him for our tenure at Beacon, I'll make them with him." Volunteered the black-haired boy, shooting Jaune a sympathetic look just before the ginger-haired girl wrapped her arms around his neck and brought him down into her... prodigious assets, jumping up and down and shouting about they were the best. Jaune began to laugh loudly for a few minutes, before the black-haired boy, who had been attempting to free himself, began to tap on his girlfriend's leg. She didn't take notice and once he began to go limp, Jaune decided to intervene.

"N-Nora," he managed between chuckles, "I-I think he's trying to t-tap out, Nora." It took him a few more seconds to recover fully from his laughing fit, and by then she had released the boy- who was sporting a single-streak pink highlight Jaune noticed- who was taking large gulps of air. "I'll admit, I've seen some funny couples in my time, but you two take the cake." Jaune chuckled once before the denials began, emanating from the blushing red head.  
"What? No, me and Renny together? Psh, puh-lease. I mean, we've known each other for our entire lives!" "Less than a decade, actually," interjected the confused looking boy, as if he didn't know what she was saying. "Exactly! So there is absolutely no way that we'd be together-together. I mean, we're together, but not together-together. You know?"  
"Um...sure." Said Jaune, obviously not believing her overzealous denials, which satisfied the ginger who quickly stopped blushing and began to skip her way over to somewhere, dragging a certain blonde Knight and midnight haired Ninja behind her.  
"I don't think I caught your name. I'm Jaune Arc." Jaune held out a hand to the boy, prompting him to shake it as they were dragged behind the energetic girl with ease.  
"Lie Ren. Please, call me Ren."  
"Have we met before? You seem somewhat familiar, Ren." He asked, getting a confused, and slightly worried, look from Ren.  
"I don't believe we have. Maybe you met someone who had a similar name? Lie isn't that uncommon of a name in Mistral."  
"Maybe. Eh, I'll figure it out later. So, you're from Mistral?"  
"Yes. We both are. You?"  
"Family tree has its roots in Vacuo. But I grew up in a little, nameless Village in Eastern Vale. You?"  
"Oh, I was born in Shion. It was a good place to grow up."  
"Oh? My family loved going there. We haven't been in a few years, but I remember it well. Maybe that's where we met."  
"Possibly. Well, it's nice to meet you again, Jaune."  
"And you, Ren."  
"Aw, you two are getting along! I love when my personal chefs get along!" Cooed Nora, bringing a confused look to Jaune's face at which Ren chuckled.  
"Sorry, but you've been claimed. I hope you've got a lot of free time and endurance." Said Ren, looking at Jaune in sympathy.  
"What the hell does that mean!?" The confused Knight's question went unanswered as Glynda Goodwitch called out over the speakers,

" _Please proceed to Beacon Cliffs, I repeat, please proceed to Beacon Cliffs._ " With that they went silent and Nora continued on her merry way, both her and Ren ignoring his yelling that he could walk on his own.

"Trust me, it is much easier to just accept what she's doing. She won't listen anyways." Sighed Ren, settling into as comfortable of a position as he could. Jaune groaned and did the same.

* * *

Ruby had just watched Jaune storm off with his coffee in confusion, before shaking it off and moving to her locker to get the weapons that she had stored the night before, subtly tapping the ones she was carrying on her to make sure they were secure before doing so.

The short walk there was uneventful, except when Yang had stopped her to introduce her to a group of her friends.

"Yo, Rubes, over here!" She shouted before quickly catching up and dragging the shorter girl to the group of people she had been talking to.

"This is my little sis, Ruby," said the buxom brawler, holding the girl against her side.  
"Hello." She said, examining each and their weapons with a critical eye.  
"From left to right this is Nebulous," "Call me Nebula." She said, interrupting Yang who quickly carried on. "Her stripper boyfriend Sanguine," "Hey!" She ignored the interruption this time, but true to her description, he was conspicuously missing his shirt, something that had been on not ten seconds before, and it was now lying on the ground a few feet away. "And finally, the unrelated twins Granite and Nevermore."  
"Hey. I'm Granite." The one with white speckled with black and grey hair and deep midnight eyes held out his hand as did the person next to him, who Ruby assumed to be Nevermore, with his white, grey, and black eyes and hair the color of tar.  
"And I'm Nevermore. Yeah, I know. Kids at the orphanage didn't really think ahead with that one." He chuckled as the small girl shook both of their hands briefly before letting go.  
"Well, it was nice to meet you, but I'd better be going," she said politely before walking off, her boots making loud clomps on the ground.

She made her way over to her pristine white locker, only to see the Ice Queen and a scarlet-haired girl wearing bronze combat armor and a black mini-skirt standing in front of it, blocking access. With a quick glance, she could easily tell that the taller of the two was extremely uncomfortable. Although the Ice Queen wasn't quite so perceptive. She kept rambling on and on about how they should be on a team together, and the redhead was saying that she would rather let the chips fall where they may, attempting to politely decline the offer.

Ruby decided to have mercy on the redhead and cut in between the two, as they were standing right in front of her locker, and pull out Crimson Rose. As she slid it onto her back, Weiss snapped at her.

"Excuse me, I was just having a conversation with Pyrrha Nikos!" She shouted at the younger girl.  
"Who?" She asked, not looking away from her locker and sliding a pistol into the holster on her thigh, hidden inside the waistband of her pants.  
"Pyrrha, Nikos. You know, the four times Mistral Regional Tournament grand champion? Graduated top of her class at Sanctum Academy?"  
"Who?" She asked again, causing the Schnee to growl.  
"She's on the box of Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes!" She shouted, waving her arms vigorously.  
"Aren't those things disgustingly unhealthy?" Said the short redhead more than she asked, looking at the Schnee with a raised eyebrow, sliding a knife into her sleeve and closing her locker, leaning against it.  
"They really aren't very good for you." Stated the polite redhead. Politely.

Weiss frowned and looked away, thinking about how she'd have to stop eating them for breakfast every day.

" _Please proceed to Beacon Cliffs, I repeat, please proceed to Beacon Cliffs._ "

"Well, you two love birds have fun. I'm going to get down to the Cliffs." Said Ruby before she walked off, waving to her sister and calling out.

* * *

Somewhere along the way Jaune managed to get free of Nora's hold and was walking beside her, Ren still in her grip. About halfway to the Cliffs, they had met up with Yang and Ruby, who'd separated from their group and were walking on their own.

"Hey, Jaune." She said, waving.  
"Yo."  
"Hello~!" Shouted Nora, waving animatedly at the two.  
"Who's this?" Asked Ruby examining the quiet boy and loud girl.  
"To be honest, I'm not entirely sure. She kinda ran into me when I was wandering around Beacon and started dragging me-" Ruby snorted and he glared at her, "around. Anyways, what've you been up to?" He asked her, and she waved off the question.  
"Eh, nothing much. Talked to the Ice Queen and some chick named Pyrrha Nikos."  
"Wait, Pyrrha Nikos? Redhead, tall, boots with heels with a xiphos and spartan shield for weapons?"  
"Yeah, you know her?"  
"Only by reputation. Apparently she's some perfect goddess of combat or something." He said, giving a dismissive wave. "I don't really care for people like that personally, and she endorsed a cereal at one point."  
"Yeah, Pumpkin Paul's Marshmellow Flakes or something."  
"Oh god, don't bring that horrible stuff up. My younger sister is absolutely addicted to it." He said, pressing his palms to his eye sockets while Ruby smirked.  
"I used to be as well, until I realized how unhealthy it was." She remarked, doing a quick once over her weapons a final time.  
"I tell her that every time she pours a bowl, 'Don't eat that, or you'll be dead before you reach twenty' is what I tell her. Every. Time." He groaned. "I wouldn't be surprised if she was eating two bowls a day now that I'm not there just to spite me." He chuckled. "So, why a sniper rifle?" He asked, gesturing to the weapon on her back.  
"It fit me." She said simply, which he was starting to note that she was more evasive than most people. "Why a sword?" She asked.  
"Family heirloom. I just... modified it, a little." He responded, tapping the sword lightly, lovingly. "Made it more useful."  
"Oh, hey. We're here." She said, effectively ending the conversation as they approached Beacon Cliffs.

With a nod and a wave, they separated and moved to the only launch plates still open. They examined the forest while Ozpin talked, taking note of what looked to be the temple he was talking about, just barely peeking over the canopy of trees directly North. Jaune focused his attention to it and began calculations for his trajectory as he tied his hair back while Ruby loaded a different magazine and flicked a small switch, which converted the semi-auto assault sniper rifle to a bolt-action with the sound widely associated with mecha-shifting. As Ozpin finished his speech, one by one they were flung into the air, into the forest.

They both took different approaches.

As Jaune flew through the air, he neared the canopy of trees, but wouldn't be close enough to the Temple to guarantee a spot in Beacon if he landed then. So he channels Aura into his fist and releases it in a shock wave, distorting the top of the trees and pushing him back up into the air as well as propelling him farther. He did this a few more times before he reached where he wanted to be, so he let himself fall. As he was about to come into full-frontal contact with a thick tree, he releases another Auric shock wave, slowing him down enough to prevent serious injury. Next, he punches out with his prosthetic and makes contact with the tree, and with a small flash of silver a blade shot out of his forearm and embeds itself into the tree at an angle. He presses the palm of his prosthetic against the tree and lets his legs take the brunt of his remaining force. With a small grunt, he is stopped and allowed to take in his situation.

He was around sixty feet off the ground, with his hidden blade buried at an angle into a tree. He got an idea after a moment and changed his position, bracing his feet against the tree. He pushed to the side lightly and the blade easily cut through the bark. He smirks and begins running along the tree, his momentum and blade respectively keeping him up and guiding him. He quickly got close the the ground and, with a small flick of his wrist, retracted the blade. Pushing off of the tree he falls to the ground and hits it, balls of his feet first, muscles relaxed, and curling into a ball the moment he makes contact with the ground, transferring his momentum into a forward roll. He comes up in a crouch, Crocea Mors half-drawn.

Ruby, having changed the magazine and converted Crimson Rose to a bolt-action rifle, did some quick math in her head and took aim at the ground. As she applied pressure to the trigger, barely keeping it under the minimum trigger-pull, she waited until she neared the tree-tops to adjust her aim and fire at an angle, launching her high into the air and forwards with the assistance of her Semblance. She checked her approximate landing zone and swapped magazines, ejecting and catching the Gravity Dust round with her teeth and with her free hand dropped it into her ammo pouch. With some time to spare, she converted it back into an assault sniper-rifle before she hit the ground and slung it over her shoulder.

With the flick of a wrist and a quick grab behind her back she brought two knives out and, just as she was about to make contact with the the tree, used her Semblance to push her to the side a little and slow her down, allowing her to catch the tree with her knives. The blades sunk into the ancient bark with ease and ate into the slightly softer inner wood with even more ease. She used their resistance to slow herself down as she left two deep gouges in the wood. This slowed her down enough to impact the next tree without breaking her Aura or killing her, and avoid seriously depleting her Aura, but she used her Semblance once more to slow her down and put her in the perfect spot to catch the tree with her blades, this on causing her to stop, nearly wrenching the blades from her hands and flinging her into the next tree, but she kept a firm grip on the two weapons.

She stays there for a moment, hanging in a tree, gaining her bearings, before bracing her feet against the tree and pushing off. She hit the ground and immediately fell into a roll, coming up with a pistol in hand. She waited for a moment, prepared for any Grimm to jump out at her, before standing and holstering her pistol. She reached behind her back and moved Crimson Rose to her hands and, with a quick series of movements, removed the scope and reduced the barrel length, knowing both of them would be ineffective in the rather close quarters of the Emerald Forest.

She held the scopeless assault weapon aloft and moved forwards, eyes searching for the visual tells of Grimm inhabitation.

* * *

As they made their trek through the forest, there was a minimum of Grimm to fight on both ends, although Ruby came across some telltale signs that her sister had been through here, namely a lot of destroyed trees and spent Dust shell cartridges. There was a small smirk on her face as she looked around, but it quickly turned into a frown of disappointment when there were no Grimm left for her to finish off. She shrugged off her disappointment and carried on, following the path of carnage until it ended before checking her internal compass to find North.

Jaune stayed alert at all times, ears pricked for any sound of a Grimm attempting to sneak up on him, but nothing came near him. As the Ruins came into sight, he wasn't sure whether to be relieved or disappointed that he hadn't fought anything yet. On one hand, he still had plenty of aura and stamina since he hadn't encountered anything, on the other, he had that cup of black coffee to wake him up and it left him with excess energy, causing him to fidget and twitch when he heard a slight breeze rustle the trees.

He shook his head to clear it before taking a deep, calming breath and let it out through his nose. His twitching ceased after a moment and while he still felt the buzz of the caffeine in his body he wasn't jittery anymore. He continued to move towards the ruins, still alert, but not jumpy.

He knows he's come across where he wants to be when he hears a large group talking. He pushes through the canopy of trees and sees the most colorful assortment of people in existence. He stands still and blinks for a moment before counting the heads, only coming up with seven.

' _Well, looks like I've found my partner._ ' He thinks, moving towards them.

* * *

Ruby walked for a while, always at the ready and her eye scanning the trees left from right, turning her body when she heard the odd rustle of trees of branch break. She narrowed her remaining silver eye in the direction of the noises before turning back to the direction of the Temple, walking a few feet before there was a low snarl behind her.  
She whipped around and brought her rifle up to see an Elder Grimm, a Beowolf, to be specific, with its pack close behind. How it had snuck up behind her with such a large group, she didn't know, but Beowolves were known to be sneaky and set up ambushes for their prey.

Well, she'd just have to kill it.

And with a dark smile on her lips, that's what she did.


	5. Chapter 5

_So, I've gotten a few people asking about what AU idea of Coeur's I'm basing this off of, and it uses the same title, A Few Seconds Too Late. It was an idea he had for a story up until late 2018. I was hoping that he'd post it but when it didn't look like he ever would, I contacted him about it, and here we are._

 _Enjoy the chapter!_

 _~MindsandMirrors_

* * *

Ruby flashed a dark smile at her opponents, an Elder Beowolf and a half-dozen mature Beowolves. She released the long cylindrical bayonet hidden inside Crimson Rose and cracked her neck, exuding rage and enjoyment.

Her first target was the Beowolf in the back of the pack, so she snapped the rifle up, the sudden movement exciting an attack from the pack, and used her Semblance to propel her forwards with a blast of displaced air distorting the foliage behind her. The Grimm never saw its death, until the metal rod was buried deep in its forehead, that is.

She quickly pulled it free and turned to the rest, who all howled in unison at the death of one of their own, mocking how true wolves act. One of their howls was cut short when a round pierced the underside of its jaw. Black blood flowed freely from the wound, turning to smoke a moment later, as the corpse fell to the forest floor.

This time, they didn't bother howling and simply went for the kill, the Elder Beowolf hanging back, watching, waiting.

Ruby welcomed one with a Dust round through the eye socket, the bullet punching through soft tissue and bone before reaching brain and killing the creature and another with a near-super-sonic combat boot to the face, snapping the bone-plate with a loud crack. She pushed off of it into the air, took aim, and fired. The round blasted through the broken plate and buried itself into its skull. The recoil of her weapon made her do a back flip in the air and she landed mid-way up a tree. She crouched against it, her momentum keeping her suspended there for a few moments before she sprung back off of it, using her Semblance to increase her speed once again, the sheer force cracking the tree behind her.

The cylindrical bayonet shattered the bone-mask and the following bullet obliterated whatever remained of the skull. She pushed a boot against its shoulder and sprung away to safety. She looked at the remaining mature Beowolf before, in an absent-minded fashion, launching a round through its skull. She then locked eyes with the Elder Grimm, silver against red, and loaded a magazine of explosive Dust rounds, ejecting the standard round and slipping it into her ammo pouch.

Without a sound or warning, the Elder Beowolf launched itself at her, deadly claws extended and arms ready to tear her apart.

She had a small flashback of a similar instance, back when she was just a toddler, and pure rage entered her system. She threw her rifle like an awkward spear at the Beowolf and as it batted it away, she disappeared from its sight-line. It looked around in confusion for a half-moment before it detected her scent, the sharp tang of Dust and a sweeter scent of roses, above it. There was a pop like a gunshot and it expected a bullet to enter its body somewhere, but not for it to hurt very much as her main weapon was missing. What it didn't expect, was a combat boot striking its spine and shattering the bone and placing a crater in the tough flesh.

She grunted in pain as her legs ached from the force of going from several hundred miles per hour to not moving at all, but also winced at how much her Aura dropped from doing such a thing. She then jumped off of the Elder Beowolf's motionless body and moved towards her rifle, limping slightly. She picked it up and removed the magazine, ejected the round, converted it into a bolt-action, and inserted a single Gravity Dust round. She took careful aim from three yards away, and pulled the trigger, the force from the recoil knocking her off-balance slightly, not having the appropriate body-mass in order to counter the force.

She looked at the rapidly-dissolving-and-now-headless-corpse and spit, frowning at it and walking off, she ejected the shell, loaded a magazine, and converted it back into a semi-automatic.

* * *

The next time she encountered anything was when she reached the ruins, where her sister and five other people were standing about, idly chatting and holding gold or black chess pieces. She smirked slightly as a quiet-looking girl with a bow had her ears assaulted by her sister's incessant talking. She pushed through the foliage, turning on the safety and slinging her rifle over her shoulder with one hand while waving with the other, catching the attention of a number of them.

"Yo, Rubes! Get over here and meet my partner!" Shouted Yang, who was standing next to a quiet black-haired girl that Ruby vaguely recognized as someone Yang had spoken to the night before, before all the lights had gone out.  
"Hey, Yang. How's Initiation treating you so far?" She asked, throwing a quick glance towards the quiet girl.  
"Ah, right, this here, is Blake Belladonna. Ninja extraordinaire and a master cosplayer."  
"Cosplayer?" Blake asked flatly, looking at Yang.  
"Yeah, the bow? Looks exactly like cat ears." Said Yang off-handedly, not looking at her and instead turning to Ruby. The comment got a set of wide eyes before the surprise was quickly quelled, not that Yang noticed, but Ruby did. She filed that bit of information on the maybe-closet-faunus away for a later date and focused her attention on her sister. "So Rubes, where's your partner? Ooh, is it that sexy blonde from last night? What was his name, Juan?"  
"Jaune, and no, I don't have a partner yet. I thought I'd meet them on the way here or something, but I guess I had some bad luck. Oh, well, I'll just grab a piece and wait for whoever comes along next." Ruby shrugged and started to move over to the chess pieces, when a familiar voice called out.

"Someone looking for a partner, 'cause I kind of need one." He said, looking at the assembled group of people and making a show of counting them out, and coming up with the odd number of seven. "So, who needs me?" He said with a shit-eating grin that brought the innuendo to that relatively innocuous statement to the forefront. Despite that Ruby still raised her hand and spoke.  
"Hey, didn't you know it was poor form to keep a lady waiting?" She asked, walking up with a Rook chess piece in hand.  
"Hmm, no, my family must've missed that part in the hundreds of hours that they drilled how to be a proper gentleman into me." He held out a hand, his natural one, and spoke, "So, nice to make your acquaintance, partner."  
"Same here. Let's get back to the cliffs."

Just then, a loud screech rang out across the forest and a shadow came across the ground. Everyone looked up at the sky in unison and saw a giant Nevermore fly above them.

"Sonofa," started Yang.

"Fucking," continued Ruby.

"Bitch." Finished Jaune, just as they Ancient Nevermore screeched and swept one wing, and a cloud of black, bone-tipped feathers started raining down upon them.

"Scatter!" Yelled someone, just as everyone started moving, readying their weapons and in some cases, changing the ammo type.

They gathered under a nearby copse of trees and with their weapons ready, discussed their plan.

"What's the plan? Anyone?" Asked Yang, keeping an eye on the Nevermore.  
"Let's lead it to the rest of the Ruins. We've got more space to move there." Stated Ruby.  
"And less cover! Besides, why should we listen to you? You're much too young to be here in the first place." Ruby growled in a way that was kind of adorable yet intimidating.  
"At least I got here on Ozpin's invitation instead of my daddy's money, princess. Now, unless someone has a better idea, let's start running." With that she turned towards the area that was the location of the Old Beacon Lighthouse.

With a blast of Rose Petals she shot off, much to the surprise of others but without hesitating Yang followed, her, shouting at them.  
"Blake, Jaune, you gonna let you're partners run off without you or something? Hurry up!" Jaune just laughed and followed while Blake sighed and started running.

"Ooh, Renny, let's go! This looks like fun!"  
"Yes, Nora." He sighed out before running with her, sliding his weapons back into his sleeves.

"We can't just let them fight that thing on their own." Said Pyrrha with a sigh, stowing away her xiphos and shield and running after them.  
"Those absolute... Dolts!" Shouted a certain heiress, before sheathing her own blade and running after them, unwilling to be left behind by even her own partner.

* * *

Cough _,_ cough _, so... Did you guys enjoy?_

 _Alright, enough jokes. I'm sure anyone of you people who actually enjoy my stories (as strange as a thought as that is for me to think) have noticed, my other two stories have been listed as on an 'INDEFINITE HIATUS'. For those of you worrying, no, that doesn't mean that they're dead, just that I'm going to be focusing on this story for a good while, possibly until it's finished. As it stands school is being an annoyance what with finals coming up so I'm spending a fair bit of my free time going over materials, and that just adds more to the head of an over-stressed-teen who doesn't sleep enough. I can hardly work on three stories in optimal conditions, those being during summer. So I'm going to push those to the back until then._

 _Alright, with that boring crap out of the way, I'm sure some of you are raging at me about how I've stretched Initiation out so far, but don't worry, I've got plans to end it within the next thirteen chapters._

 _Thank you all for the time of day, and please, review. It's the lifeblood of us authors you know?_

 _~MindsandMirrors._


End file.
